Confidence is built by testing and certifying every app and
game to help protect customers from malware and viruses.
Over the last year we’ve certified and published over 75,000 new
apps and games (more than doubling the catalog size) and over
300,000 app updates. In addition, this year we added the
capability for customers to tell us if they have a concern about
an app.

Very good. It sounds like Microsoft has the manpower to handle a large
influx of developer submissions.

But here's the problem: It doesn't matter how big an operating
system's app library is. That never mattered. "App selection"
isn't about the number of apps available, it's about having the
apps people want to use. And Microsoft still can't promise that
its Windows Phone users will get the latest and greatest apps
with the best features first.

Take a look at the Windows Phone Marketplace today. There's no
Pandora (but supposedly it's coming
soon). No Dropbox. No Instagram. Even the Facebook app isn't made by Facebook; it's made
by Microsoft, so it's missing a lot of the latest features
Android and iPhone users enjoy. Then there are apps like
Twitter that feel like they haven't been
updated in eons, while their Android and iOS counterparts get all
the glory.

Now look at the
hot new apps that launched this year: Clear. Snapchat.
Brewster. Fantastical. All of those apps launched on iPhone
first. Some got Android versions shortly after. None are found on
Windows Phone.

I talk to app developers all the time and almost all of them tell
me the same story. They prefer to make apps for iPhone and
Android first because that's where the users are. They don't have
anything against Windows Phone, but it's not worth the time and
money investment to develop for a platform that has next to no
market share.